Cooling arrangements having a housing with a plurality of plug-in positions for receiving plug-in components are known. For example, DE 202010007046 U1 discloses a rack housing comprising a plurality of plug-in positions for receiving a plurality of fanless plug-in components in a first region of the rack housing adjoining a first housing side. The rack housing has at least one low pressure chamber in a second region of the rack housing adjoining the first region, wherein, between the low pressure chamber and the plug-in positions, first openings are provided which permit discharge of air heated by the plug-in components into the low pressure chamber. The known cooling arrangement also includes an exhaust air unit for producing a negative pressure in the low pressure chamber of the rack housing.
These and similar cooling arrangements are based on the following functional principle. By one or more relatively high-performance fans, ambient air is drawn or blown through the individual plug-in components to effect cooling of the electrical or electronic parts disposed thereon or therein. The heated air is then either discharged directly outwards, for example, via a ventilation device of a building installation or is blown back into a service room, wherein additional cooling of the room must often be ensured by air conditioning systems or similar devices.
In particular in the case of server racks fitted with particularly high-performance plug-in servers, a considerable portion of the power required for their operation is supplied either directly or indirectly to their cooling.
A problem with known cooling arrangements is that the different functional units, in particular plug-in components, housing, exhaust air unit and possibly a cooling unit which is present are provided by different manufacturers and are also optimized independently of each other. For example, the degree of effectiveness of heat exchangers in known arrangements increases with a higher, ambient temperature, which means that their manufacturers advise operation at a relatively high ambient temperature. However, this is disadvantageous for other functional units, in particular semiconductor parts disposed in the plug-in components.
It could therefore be helpful to improve the energy efficiency of cooling arrangements.